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IS THIS WHAT THE WORLD IS WAITING FOR? 



I. — A Hindoo's Plea for a Life of Renunciation. 

 In the Open Cowl for March there appears a 

 remarkable article by Mr. Har Dayal, who was edu- 

 cated at the University of Punjab at Lahore. He after- 

 wards spent two years at Oxford, and returning to 

 India in 1908, decided to become a friar and lead the 

 hifjher life, hut finding the conditions unfavouraiile 

 there, he returned to Europe, and after spending some 

 time in London. Paris, Switzerland, Italy, Algeria, and 

 the West Indies, reached the United .States in Feb- 

 ruary, 1911, and publis'hed the result of his studies 

 and observ-ations under the title of '" What the World 

 is Waiting For." It is a brief paper, and opens with 

 a description of this age of unrest and transition. 



A TIME OF TRAVAIL — 



The time-spirit, Mr. Har Dayal says, is in travail, 

 but the Ideal, which shall be a Messiah unto humanity, 

 has not yet been ushered into light. There has been a 

 great intellectual advance which has deprived the 

 educated classes of any definite philosophy of life, and 

 there is everywhere visible a moral set-back. The 

 young generation question the very possibility of the 

 higher life of renunciation and self-control. Passion is 

 to them a deity : — 



Even BernarJ .Sliaw , who is very sane in some rcfpccis, sneers 

 at St. Kiancir- for liis love of povcrly, ami at St. .\niliony for 

 his love of the animal creation. A false gospel of individualism, 

 enjoyment, and philislinism is pervertini; the minds of our young 

 men and women. It is bad indeed when practice falls short of 

 ihe ideal. Bui it is infinitely worse when theory itself betrays 

 its trust, and panders to our lower nature. Idealism, with its 

 great message of poverty and suffering, has fallen among the 

 thieves and robbers of "evolution," "socialism," and the rest. 

 — AND OF GENERAL EXHAUSTION. 



All symptoms point to a general exhaustion of the 

 vital force of the community — namely, its moral 

 energ)-. Mr. Har Dayal then quotes with a shudder of 

 horror the ju(l;,'ment expressed by Professor William 

 James on the subject : — 



" Among us Knglish-speaking peoples especially do the 

 praises of poverty need once more to be boldly sung. IVe hovf 

 grown litcially a/r.ihl to be focr. We despise anyone who elects 

 to be poor in order to simplify and save his inner life. We 

 hai'C toil tht /(tccr of even imoginhii; n'ial Ihe ancient idealisation 

 0/ poverty could lia:e meant ; the liberation from material attach- 

 ments, the unbrib'cl soul, the manlier indifference, the paying 

 our way by what we arc or do and not by what we have, the 

 right to fling away our life at any moment irresponsibly- the 

 more athletic trim, in short, the moral fighting shape. . . . It is 

 e<ttain that Ihe ^n-imltnt fear of pn'eity among the educated 

 classes is the uvril moral disease from ••Mch our civilisation 

 suffers." (The italics are mine.) 



RKNt NCIATION TO THE RESCUE. 



What, then, must be done? If the fear of poverty 

 is the curse and nightmare of the world, the worship 

 of poverty is the way of salvation. Renunciation, 

 and renunciation alone, will save humanity. Mr. 

 Har Dayal says : — 



I'overly, Ihe lovely bride of St. Francis, the saviour of nations, 

 the guarilian of liberty and science, must be enthroned on the 

 pedestal from wliith the Kefoimation, the crude philosophy of 

 the eighteenth century, tin- modirn !liii>r\ nf "sunos in life," 



and the pseudo-ethics of the evolutionists have dragged her 

 down. The worship of rags, dirt, penance, homelessness, and 

 obscurity in the individual must be re-established if humanity is 

 to get rid of poverty, disease, dirt, inequality and ignorance. 

 Asceticism must be brought to the aid of science and politics, in 

 order that this mighty editice of civilisation may be prevented 

 from tottering to its fall in the twentieth century. Let us bring 

 back the age of St. Francis and St. Bernard, adding to their 

 purely spiritual zeal our knowledge of science, our experience of 

 politics, our wisdom in dealing with social evils, our wider out- 

 look upon life, and our keener appreciation of the solidarity of 

 humanity beyond the bounds of creed. This is the work of the 

 new" Franciscans, whom I alreaily see with my mind's eye 

 be.iutifying and glorifying and vivifying this our civilisation 

 with their moral fervour and their intellectual gifts. 



A PROPHECY OF PAR.\DISE. 



He would proclaim the union of rationalism in reli- 

 gion with practical renunciation in ethics. He would 

 cover the country with monasteries devoted to scientific 

 research and sociological studies, where men and 

 women, living together in purity and spiritual love, will 

 be trained as missionaries of liberty, equality, hygiene, 

 racial fraternity, scientific knowledge, education, 

 toleration, and. the rights of oppressed nationalities. 

 Renunciation, based on human needs and practical 

 genius, would convert our earth into a paradise. Mr, 

 Har Dayal says : — 



Yes, the new orders of monks and nuns, correcting whatever 

 was fant.islic, unnatural, foolish and superstitious in the mcdirc- 

 val ideals, will usher in the golden age of the fu'.urc. Thus will 

 the ideals of St. Francis, St. Rose, Rousseau, Voltaire, Marx, 

 Bakunin, Mazzini, and Haeckel be united in one beautiful 

 whole. And that is to be the Idral-Messiah of the twentieth 

 century. Our Messiah will be an ideal and not a person, for 

 our ideal is so vast and grand that no one person can realise it 

 in its entirely. Therefore we put the Ideal fiisl, and then we- 

 sliall have devoted servants of the Ideal as our prophets and seers. 



From India, the land of living spirituality, comes this great 

 message to the Western world. From the Middle .^ges, the 

 period of spiritual awakening in Europe, comes this voice borne 

 on the wings of time. Thus the past and the present combine 

 to make the future. To all my .-Imerican sisters and brothers 

 who are perplexed and doubt-tossed I say: "Touch science, 

 politics and rationalism with the breath of life that renunciation 

 alone can give, and the future is yours." 



Is this, indeed, what the world is waiting for—a new 

 impersonal Messiah, which is to preach the doctrine of 

 a rationalised St. Francis ? 



WHAT IS A LIVING WAGE ? 



Whether or not there are those who have responded 

 to the appeal of the new St. Francis, there is no doubt 

 that those who have not are increasing!)' determined 

 to assert their claim to a living wage. What is a living 

 wage ? What is the minimum reasonable wage referred 

 to in the .Miners' Bill ? It is a subject upon which we 

 shall hear more and more as time goes on, but it is 

 obvious it cannot be fixed off-hand, nor is there any 

 hard and fast standard ; but when archbishops take 

 to discussing the .\bolition of Po\erty, and tell us 

 that it may be expected within a measurable number 

 of years, it is well to have a definition of what the 

 poverty is that is to be abolished. Mr. Har Dayal 

 obviously aims at a voluntary renunciation. It is easy 

 to see that his doctrine, if generally accepted by the 



